William Martin (Royal Navy officer)

Little is known about Martin's early life. He may have been the eldest son of Tutchen Martin, resident of Stepney, and his wife Bennet Gash, or Gage.[1] Other accounts suggest that he was the son of Commodore George Martin, who died in 1724. William Martin appears to have entered the navy, as a volunteer-per-order, on 26 August 1708, joining HMS Dragon. Dragon went out to Newfoundland in May 1710, but Martin did not accompany her, having been left at Plymouth on account of his health.[1] Instead he went out to the Mediterranean aboard HMS Ranelagh and was promoted to second lieutenant of HMS Resolution on 30 July 1710 by Sir John Norris.[1] Martin remained in the Mediterranean for the next few years, being transferred to HMS Superb on 4 January 1712 by Sir John Jennings and serving aboard her until July 1714.[1]

Martin then went out with the fleet despatched to the Baltic under Sir John Norris, and served at first aboard Norris's flagship HMS Cumberland, but transferring at some point between 1715 and 1718 to HMS Rupert, before returning to Cumberland.[1] He was promoted to captain of Cumberland on 9 October 1718, remaining with her until 9 February 1720, when he took command of HMS Blandford, still with Norris's fleet in the Baltic between 1720 and 1721. He afterwards went to American waters to combat piracy.[1]

Admiral Thomas Mathews, 1743, by Claude Arnulphy. Mathews was Martin's commander in the Mediterranean, and sent him on a number of detached missions to Mediterranean ports to convince their rulers not to support Britain's enemies.

Martin took command of HMS Advice in 1727, and was assigned at first to the fleet supporting Gibraltar, and then to service in the English Channel with Sir Charles Wager's fleet. He left Advice in 1732 and took command of HMS Sunderland the following year.[1] His command of Sunderland lasted until 1737, and took him to Lisbon and into the Mediterranean. His service in these waters continued after his transfer to HMS Ipswich in May 1738, with Ipswich assigned to Rear-Admiral Nicholas Haddock's fleet.[1] Martin's service continued after the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, and he was appointed commodore in January 1741 and given a detached squadron off Cadiz. Haddock returned to England at about this time, handing over command in the Mediterranean to his second officer, Richard Lestock, who was in turn superseded by the arrival of Vice-Admiral Thomas Mathews. Mathews had the task of carrying out diplomatic missions with the Mediterranean states and of securing British interests during the war. The Neapolitans had, in violation of their claims of neutrality, sent troops to support Britain's enemy, Spain, and Mathews was determined to force their withdrawal from the war. In July 1742 Mathews sent Martin, in command of squadron, to Naples 'to bring the King of the two Sicilies to a just sense of his errors in having attacked in conjunction with the Spaniards the Queen of Hungary's territories in Italy.'^[a][2]

After these successes Martin sailed back to England, arriving there late in 1743, and receiving a promotion to rear admiral on 7 December.[1] He received a command in the Channel Fleet in February 1744 under his old commander, Sir John Norris, and was promoted to vice admiral on 23 June 1744.[8] Martin was appointed second in command of the fleet sent to Lisbon under Sir John Balchen, and while there produced a report on the contract hospitals.[1] Martin was highly critical of them, and influenced the later decision to introduce dedicated medical centres solely for naval use.[1] Balchen was lost during the return voyage to England, when his flagship, the 100-gun HMS Victory, disappeared at sea. Martin replaced him as commander of the fleet, a post he held until 1745.[1]

Martin was based in the Downs under Admiral Edward Vernon in December 1745, and then succeeded Vernon in the command. The fleet had been stationed off the Downs to meet the threat of a French invasion to support a Jacobite rising. One such fleet had already been dispersed the previous year, and with the collapse of the threat Martin returned to his usual station, and commanded the main fleet until his retirement in July 1746 on health grounds.[1] He was promoted to full admiral on 15 July 1747,[9] and retired to Twickenham where he died on 17 September 1756. He had married Mary Atkins, of Twell, Gloucestershire on 16 August 1726, but the couple did not have any children.[1]